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  It's
wonderful what you can find on a shopping trip to Waterstones book store
on a Sunday afternoon!
We wandered back to where we had parked our car not far from Bolton's
iconic Church of Saint Peter down on the bottom of Church Gate, and then TJ spotted a derelict
factory through the fence, sitting just the other side of a brook. We
couldn't resist the temptation to have a look and soon we were wandered
about inside, shopping bags in hand, dressed totally inappropriately in
trainers and decent clothes, snapping what remains of the factory on an iPhone!
Subsequent research has thrown up a little bit of
history for the place.
Founded in 1873, the original name of the company
was John Booth and Sons. They had several changes of name over the years
and they are now known as Booth Industries, which is part of the Redhall
group of companies. At some point in the past this particular engineering works was
abandoned but the company still has a large presence in Bolton with four
construction and testing facilities and offices totalling 8650 square
meters. The company now specialises in the manufacture of fire doors,
blast doors and modular wall systems, and they also carry out testing
work. Their customers include BP, Exxon, Shell, Costain, Glaxo and HM
Prisons. During the Second World War, amongst other things they
manufactured steel radar towers and Bailey Bridges, and in 1958 they
manufactured the building steelwork for Rolls Royce's new high altitude
engine plant.
We found a lovely anecdote from the war related by
one of the company's employees who was also a home guard. It was normal
practise to mark a steel plate "Csk. T. S."
which meant "countersink this side". A
young apprentice turned his plate over and began countersinking all the
pre-drilled holes in the plate on the back side. When the foreman spotted
this he went ballistic at the youngster and demanded to know why he was
countersinking the wrong side of the plate. The youngster replied that he
though T.S meant "T'other side"!
The factory appears to have been
owned by a different company circa 1890, one Jackson Brothers, and it was
then known as Wharf Foundry. Some other old photographs we have found
indicate that it was possibly also a bleach works, either before, during
(by way of diversification) or after, we are not at all sure! Who bought
who, and when, is also a blank, and to cap it all we are not sure exactly
when the building was finally abandoned and left to rot! I can certainly
remember it being a going concern when I was studying ( ? ) at Bolton
Technical College in the mid 1970s as I used to regularly visit Booth's
Music just up the street, and drink the most filthy looking cider you ever
saw in the nearby Man and Scythe pub at 12 pence a pint! Oh happy daze...
Below are a series of six
photographs taken in the Victorian era of the factory before it was taken
over by Booth Engineering...
Dereliction at the factory is quite
far advanced - there is very little of the roof left now and almost all the
equipment within the building is long gone, the few exceptions being the
odd chain hoist and a couple of what looked like enormous shipping
containers, though clearly that was not what they were because they would
not go on any wagon on the road today! Roof timbers litter the floor and
through the gaps one may catch a glimpse of the imposing church tower from
almost anywhere in the building. Our day was lovely and sunny, which
considering we are in the middle of the English monsoon season (June) was
very much a bonus.
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Below is a
selection of the photographs we took on our Booth Engineering Works
visit in June, 2012... To
view any of the photographs in a far bigger size then click on the
image of your choice and it will open in a new window.
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